Letter: Chico bag ban can protect ocean life

Our oceans are drowning in plastic trash. The United Nations Environmental Programme reports that each square mile of ocean contains over 46,000 pieces of plastic litter, varying in size from tiny flakes to bags to commercial fishing nets. All of this garbage is a huge threat to marine life, and plastic bags are among the worst killers. That's why Chico should ban single-use plastic bags.

Take the endangered leatherback sea turtle. These turtles consume hundreds of jellyfish each day and can easily mistake plastic bags for their favorite food. In fact, one third of adult turtles have ingested plastic, according to a recent study. Researchers in Queensland, Australia have found that bags and other soft plastics caused nearly a third of all sea turtle deaths in the region studied. Leatherback populations have declined by 95 percent in the last two decades.

Other species would benefit too. Seabirds frequently ingest floating plastic, mistaking it for food. Other birds are trapped or entangled in bags and often drown or suffocate. Adults can scoop up plastic pieces, including bag scraps, and feed them to their chicks. When plastic lodges in the chick's stomach, it blocks food and can starve the chick.

It's time for Chico to do the right thing. Plastic bags are wasteful, unnecessary and lethal to vulnerable animals. Each bag that reaches the sea is one bag too many. Let's take a stand for the ocean and ban single-use plastic bags.